The citizen-soldiers who fought for the Confederacy personified the best qualities of
America. The preservation of liberty and freedom was the motivating factor in the
South's decision to fight the Second American Revolution. The tenacity with which
Confederate soldiers fought underscored their belief in the rights guaranteed by the
Constitution. These attributes are the underpinning of our democratic society and
represent the foundation on which this nation was built.

Today, the Sons of Confederate Veterans is preserving the history and legacy of these
heroes so that future generations can understand the motives that animated the Southern Cause.

The SCV is the direct heir of the United Confederate Veterans, and the oldest hereditary
organization for male descendants of Confederate soldiers. Organized at Richmond,
Virginia in 1896, the SCV continues to serve as a historical, patriotic, and non-political
organization dedicated to ensuring that a true history of the 1861-1865 period is preserved.

Membership in the Sons of Confederate Veterans is open to all male descendants of any
veteran who served honorably in the Confederate armed forces.

BECAUSE I have a deep sense of loyalty to my family and that especially includes my great Grandfather,
who, as a private in the Confederate Army with no hope of recognition except that his sacrifice would be
remembered by his family, gave his life in defense of his country, his home and those who would come after him.

BECAUSE I believe in the promise of the Man of Galilee, of life after death. As my great grandfather
looks down upon me from the Valhalla of Confederate heroes I want him to know that I am not ungrateful,
that I remember and honor his bravery and sacrifice.

BECAUSE I have so much to be proud of in the Confederate Army. Its brilliant fight, under conditions of
extreme privation, against an enemy overwhelming in numbers and equipment, so won the admiration of the
world that 100 years later, a group of retired British Army and Navy officers organized the Confederate
Historical Society of Great Britain, headquartered in London, to study its campaigns. In 1974, a group
of Belgians organized the Confederate Historical Society of Belgium, based in Brussels, for the same
reason and purpose. The Southern Skirmisher's Ass'n in England re-enacts battles of the War. Some
members have to wear the Blue but typical of the sentiment, is one sturdy English Confederate who
told a reporter: "...one Southern fighting man was worth two Yankees. I would never be anything but a
Southerner."

No other army in history has been paid such a tribute by foreigners over a century after the war in
which it was engaged. Are foreigners to admire and honor the valor of the Confederate soldier in my
family while I remain indifferent?

BECAUSE I Love the South and I am proud to be a Southerner. I am proud of the culture, grace and
elegance of the Old South, of our heritage of courage, honor, chivalry, respect for womanhood,
patriotism, and of duty to God and country. I love the Confederate Flag and "Dixie" as stirring
symbols of that heritage. I take pride in the earlier leading role the Old South played in the
Revolutionary War, the drafting of the Constitution and the founding of the United States. I love
the "Star Spangled Banner" and the Flag of the United States, and I served under that flag in World War II.

BECAUSE our Southern heritage has served our nation well since 1865. No section has surpassed the
South in percentage of volunteers to defend our country in time of war. And, the Southern people,
who lost everything in the War, and without government aid, had to pull themselves up by their own
bootstraps, traditionally adhere to the free enterprise system with its liberty and opportunity for
all as opposed to the dictatorship of the welfare state with its liberty and opportunity for none.

BECAUSE even today, some of our school books, movies, television programs and press falsely portray
Southerners as rebels and traitors who fought to preserve slavery, misleading our children and
millions of Americans ignorant of history. Since my family fought for the Confederacy, they thereby
falsely malign my family and me.

BECAUSE there are even those who would ban "as offensive" the playing of Dixie and the display of
the Confederate Flag for which so many Southerners shed their blood; who would dismantle all
monuments to our Confederate dead; who would erase all honor to Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee,
Stonewall Jackson, Nathan Bedford Forrest, Wade Hampton, Jeb Stuart, and all our other Southern
heroes. Their purpose is to destroy our proud heritage. As Winston Churchill said, "any people with
contempt for their heritage have lost faith in themselves and no nation can long survive without
pride in its traditions". Our enemies know this. At the same time of the movement to ban the display
of the Confederate Flag, during the Vietnam War, we saw our American Flag spat upon, burned, and
the flag of an enemy nation with whom we were at war, paraded through the streets of our Nation's Capitol.

BECAUSE I intend to defend my family's honor and remember the sacrifice of my Great Grandfather,
Wilson L. Dykes, private in the Confederate Army, and because it is my patriotic duty to my country,
I belong to the Sons of Confederate Veterans, a respected, non-partisan, patriotic organization
dedicated to preserving our Southern Heritage for ourselves, our children, and our children's children,
and to seeing that the history of the Confederate States of America and the war fought in its defense,
is truthfully recorded.

I should also add that my membership is a pleasure because through the programs at SCV meetings I
have become much better informed about the most fascinating War in our history, and through SCV
social activities I have made many warm friendships, both locally and all over the country.
Those of us who belong to the Sons of Confederate Veterans do so:

"With ranks unbroken, ragged, starved and decimated, the Southern soldier for duty's sake,
undaunted stood to the front of the battle until no light remained to illumine the field of
carnage, save the luster of his chivalry and courage."

We are determined that your glory be not forgot, as long as fame her record keeps.

"To you, Sons of Confederate Veterans, we will commit the vindication of the cause
for which we fought. To your strength will be given the defense of the Confederate
soldier's good name, the guardianship of his history, the emulation of his virtues,
the perpetuation of those principles which he loved and which you love also, and
those ideals which made him glorious and which you also cherish."

"Any people, anywhere, being inclined and having the power, have the right
to rise up and shake off the existing government, and form a new one that
suits them better. This is a most valuable and most sacred right - a right
which we hope and believe is to liberate the world. Nor is this right
confined to cases in which the whole people of an existing government may
choose to exercise it. Any portion of such people that can, may revolutionize,
and make their own, of so many of the territory as they inhabit."